When the Princess Danis reaches a marriageable age, the king proposes a contest by which whomever recovers the Trollheight Goat, who gives wine instead of milk, will win her hand, and farmboy Holt is hired to lead a band of treacherous suitors.

When the Summerhill keep falls to an enemy and all its men are carried off into captivity, it is up to the dogs of the keep--mutts, terriers, pets, shepherds, mastiffs, and more--to rescue their masters from their captors.

Queen Danis and farmboy-turned-knight Holton join their friends--a dwarf, a giant talking owl, and an absent-minded mage--on a quest to destroy the Crown of Vanderthan, a powerful artifact of the immortals, and save their world.